The field of this invention relates to a clamping assembly and more particularly to a clamping assembly for use in clamping the umbilical cord of a newborn infant.
It has been common practice for generations to cut the umbilical cord of a newborn infant and then tie off the end of the umbilical cord by a tie string. Recently, it has been common practice to employ some type of a clamp to close the end of the umbilical cord thereby eliminating the need of the tie string. Previously, a common type of such a cord clamp has been made of surgical steel and although they serve quite efficiently to close the cord, such clamps are heavy and therefore normally are required to be taped to the body of the infant in order to avoid traction on the cord. Such metallic cord clamps are rather expensive and are therefore reusable and require cleaning and sterilization prior to reuse. Therefore, the use of such a cord clamp requires the services of hospital personnel, as well as the use of hospital cleaning and sterilization equipment.
Recently, there has been in common use a lightweight umbilical cord clamp formed of plastic material. Such plastic clamps are comparatively inexpensive and are disposable, thereby eliminating the need for cleaning and sterilization. The lightweight clamp exerts little or no traction on the umbilical cord and the use of taping the umbilical cord to the body of the infant is not necessary.
The umbilical cord clamp is installed immediately after birth. This means that the physician doing the installation, with his gloved hands covered with blood and other matter, must grasp the small lightweight clamp, place such upon the cord, and push the ends of the clamp together thereby fastening such in the closed position. This procedure is repeated twice with two clamp members being located in a spaced-apart manner. The umbilical cord is then severed between the clamps with one portion of the umbilical cord remaining with the mother and the other portion of the umbilical cord being attached to the infant.
There is substantial difficulty for the physician to install these clamps since the physician's hands are quite slippery. Frequently, the clamps slip from the physician's hands. There is a definite need for a clamping assembly to facilitate quick and easy installing of such umbilical cord clamps anticipating that the installation of such clamps will be at a time when the hands of the physician are in a quite slippery condition.